Kramer v. Standing Pine Drainage Dist.

• Citation: 78 So. 5,117 Miss. 387
• Decision Date: 18 March 1918
• Docket Number: 19440
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
• Parties: KRAMER ET AL. v. STANDING PINE DRAINAGE DISTRICT

78 So. 5

117 Miss. 387

KRAMER ET AL. v. STANDING PINE DRAINAGE DISTRICT

No. 19440

Supreme Court of Mississippi

March 18, 1918

Division B

APPEAL from the circuit court of Leake county, HON. J. D. CARR Judge.

Proceedings by X. A. Kramer and others to have a tax levied against the property within the Standing Pine Drainage District. From a judgment of the circuit court sustaining a refusal of the board of supervisors to levy a tax and denying the relief prayed for, the petitioners appeal.

The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.

Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.

R. H. &amp J. H. Thompson, Fulton Thompson and O. A. Luckett, for appellants.

J. L. McMillon, for appellee.

OPINION

STEVENS, J.

The record of this appeal shows an abortive effort to establish under chapter 197, Laws of 1912, a drainage district to be known as the "Standing Pine Drainage District" in Leake county. It affirmatively appears that more than ten percentum of the landowners of the proposed district, in number, acreage, and value, petitioned for the organization of the district in accordance with the purposes of the statute, that the petition described the territory to be embraced, gave a list of the names and post office addresses of the landowners, and otherwise complied with the law. The chancery clerk, on receiving this petition, notified the chancellor of the district, and the chancellor rendered a decree, appointing county drainage commissioners. The county commissioners met and organized, and, in taking the necessary steps for the organization of the district, elected an engineer and an attorney, as authorized by the statute, and incurred other legitimate items of expense. Mr. Kramer was selected as an engineer to survey out and make profiles and maps of the district, and his compensation was fixed at twelve cents an acre. District drainage commissioners were selected. Before the district was finally organized, many of the landowners concerned protested and petitioned against the formation of the district, and finally the project was abandoned altogether. The county board of commissioners at their regular meetings made specific allowances as follows:

"R P. Wright, county drainage commissioner, eight days, five dollars a day, forty dollars.

"J. M. Scott, county drainage commissioner, three days, five dollars a day, fifteen dollars.

"W. L. Lyell, county drainage commissioner, four days, five dollars a day, twenty dollars.

"J. C. Majure, county drainage commissioner, four days, five dollars a day, twenty dollars.

"Tom Hardage district drainage commissioner, twenty-two days, five dollars a day, one hundred and ten dollars.

"M. O. Wright, district drainage commissioner, five days, five dollars a day, twenty-five dollars.

"J. R. Shepherd, twenty-six days, five dollars a day, one hundred and thirty dollars.

"O. A. Luckett, county attorney, for services rendered to the commissioners, three hundred dollars.

"N. F. Wallace, clerk for the drainage commission, fifty dollars.

"N. F. Wallace, for money paid out for buying books, etc., for nonresident landowners, three dollars.

"To the Carthagenian, a newspaper, for publication notices twenty-five dollars and...